Sister of Mine
by The Blasphemous Contessa
Summary: This was originally a oneshot of when Alice was taken to the asylum through her sister Cynthia's eyes. I did this partly because no one else was, but mostly because I think Cynthia deserves to tell her story. Complete
1. Prologue

** Sister Of Mine**

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Okay, so this is Alice's story of when she was taken away through the eyes of her sister Cynthia. I did this partly because this is something no one else is doing, but mostly because I have this view of Cyntia being an innocent bystander or even an ally during this time.

**Disclaimer:**I am not Stephenie Meyer. Syephenie is much prettier and smarter and probably richer than I am. I am just a wierd girl from Texas who likes to write stories. Please don't dismember me for writing this because I have no money to bribe you or ransom myself with.**:End Disclaimer**

"No! No, no, no, no, no!" Mary had her hands over her ears and was rocking back and forth with tears streaming down her face. I hated when she did that, but not as much as our parents hated **her** when she did that. So I tried to hide her from Mama and Daddy.

It wasn't that hard, I may be two years younger than her but she is about the size of a ten-year-old. I half-dragged her to the attic then left to fetch some water. Mary was always thirsty when her visions went away.

When I returned to the attic I saw that Mary was "awake". I mutely handed her the water as I waited for her explaination. I didn't have long to wait.

"They're sending me away, aren't they?" She asked suddenly. Her voice was rasppy from her yelling earlier. "They're going to put me in the dark place and let the men hurt me!" I had heard Mama and Daddy whispering at night, but I had no idea that's what they were planning.

"They can't do that!" I cried at immediatly. "They wouldn't do that, they love you! I wouldn't let them!" I declared. I may ne only thirteen but I could be quite strong willed when I want to be. I crossed my arms over my chest as if to say "just try me".

Mary laughed darkly, "That just might make them send me away faster." I sniffed but I knew she was right. I was hit with an idea every bit as sudden as Mary's brief glimpses of the future.

"When are they going to do it?" I asked abruptly. I guess I had surprised her.

"I don't know, it changes." She admitted. "Why?" she added suspiciously.

"How about the night before we climb out the window? The we won't have to be seperated or anything!" I added excitedly. Just then I heard a thump on the stairs.

The next day the men came to take my best friend away. I fought, I cried, I yelled, but Mary just let them take her.

"I'm sorry I won't get to come to the wedding, but your daughter's going to be beautiful." She called back to me. That was the last time I saw or heard from my sister

_ Cynthia Anne Brandon_

**I know it's short and kinda sad, but this was the best I could do. The was no way to make it longer without making it boring. If I get soem good reviews I might make a series out of it (add more chapters), but for now I'm strictly one-shots!**

**Sami (JaDeViPeR08)**


	2. Chapter 1

**Okay, I've decided to do it as a story . . . I have no idea where this is going yet so don't ask . . .I just have a vague idea that the last chapter was just a prologue this is set during New Moon when Alice is researching herself**

**Sister of Mine**

**Author's Note:** Okay, so only the prologue was in Cyntia's point of view, but this idea hit me as suddenly as the original story did. This is more about the relationship the two sisters had than what I had originally intended **: End Author's Note**

"Alice, dear?" The kindly old woman, my niece aksed me, "Did you find anything sweetheart?" I had gone to Biloxi pretending to be researching the south in the 1920's. The last thing I had expected was to find my niece in a nursing home with an old shoebox of my sister's old diaries.

I picked up a felt covered book with frayed lace around the edges. I felt a memory pulling itself from the back of my mind. I knew I should recognize this diary in particular but I didn't know why.

"This is perfect, thank you Miss Laura for letting me look at these." I said sincerly, careful to give myself a slight accent. I openned the first page and a crumbling black and white photgraph fell to the floor. It was me, about eleven-years-old but still wearing a short dress with my arm wrapped around a smaller girl. She looked like me except her hair was longer and not so dark. We both had blue eyes that came out as lighter in the colorless picture. "Who's that?" I asked innocently indicating myself and the girl that could only be Cynthia.

"The younger girl is my mother. Wonderful woman, God rest her soul." She leaned forward and shook her head minutely. I couldn't tell if it was in confusion of not. "I do believe the older girl is my aunt, Mary. My grandparents acted as if she had died young but somehow I never quite believed them. Now, a nice young lady like yourself," She changed the subject indicating a tray of cookies. "Wouldn't happen to want a snack, now would she?" I took a cookie to be polite but I chewed carefully not likeing the idea of coughing it up again later.

On the page the diary was opened to, the page the picture had fallen from, Cynthia had written a few sentences:

_Today is my birthday and Mary has given me you! I do believe this is the best thing I've gotten all day. I suppose I should tell a bit about my self. My name is Cynthia Anne Brandon and today I am nine-years-old. My best friend in the whole world is my sister, her name is Mary Alice Brandon. She is two years older than me which is young enough to be my friend I suppose. Martha's sister Bethany is five years older than her and they hate each other. I have dark brown hair and blue eyes, Mary looks like me except prettier, and her hair is darker._

_Since it is my birthday I shall tell you exactly what I recieved. Mama gave me a lovely doll with a beautiful dress adna painted face. I'm afraid I shant be able to play with her. Father is letting me have a real horse! He says I am too big for my pony now. My friends came to share cake and wish me a happy birthday, but I confess I wanted them to leave so Mary could tell me what she saw. _

_I'd recognize that look on her face anywhere. She has seen a vision from the future. She's always right, you know. Even when she tries she can't stop a vision from coming true. I think that's why Daddy hates her so much. He calls her a witch when he thinks no one is listenning. Mama stands up for her, but I think she is afraid of Mary as well. I am angry with both of them. I want to tell them Mary would never hurt anyone and that she doesn't like her visions either. But I don't because a proper young lady keeps her eyes downcast and her opinions to herself._

_Oh, Daddy is calling me to come pick my new horse before it gets too dark, so I must go._

_Cynthia Anne Brandon_

I looked up at the eyes of my niece, trying to find some similarity in her withered body to the whole one of my sister from the photograph. I was hoping to find some physical trait I recognized in myself. She did have clear blue eyes as bright as a summer sky.

"She really loved her sister, didn't she?" I asked before I could stop myself. "She writes about her as if she were holy or something." I added hoping I sounded like a teenager.

"Oh yes," Laura replied smilingly, "she used to always say things like 'IF Mary were here we would . . . ' or 'Mary always used to do that.' or sometimes even just plain 'I wish Mary were here'. I believe summers were the hardest for her. In June she would get so meloncholy and blame herself for the silliest things. I could tell she was really blaming herself for something that happened years before." This woman, this stranger I would have helped raise under different conditions, frowned slightly. "Now if you'll excuse me, thi sold woman needs her rest." She yawned. "Feel free to take those diaries, Dear. Just be sure you bring them back to me, you hear?" She added as she began to hobble to her room. I offered to help her then pulled my hoodie over my head as I stepped out of the nursing home and into the quickly fading autumn sunset.

**Okay, I know it's not very long but at least I updated! I just want to thank all of my reviewers, I love the support and encouragement. I know I'm changing from what I originally set out to do this version is a lot better than the one I was going to publish.**

**Sami**


	3. Chapter 2

This is it, the long awaited chapter from your trusty Sami-not-Stephenie fanfic writer.

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**Chapter 2**

I ran back to the lavish hotel i was staying at, I couldn't bring the car to the nursing home and still have my cover story be believable. At least I had thought to bring a hoodie, it was fall so the jacket was excusable despite the sun. In my backpackcarefully nestled in with my notebook were two diaries, a faded and frayed journal with a lace edge and a slightly thicker volume with no nonsense about frilliness or decorations. I assumed Cynthia picked this one out for herself. Her entries indicated that had the pink diary been a gift from anyone else she would not have used it at all.

Once back in my room I pulled out the first diary, the one I had given to my baby sister so long ago. I softly touched the cover again and felt the faint memory pulling at me, It felt like something soft, tame - light hearted. I sat cross-legged on the large bed and briefly wondered where Jasper was. He had come with me for moral support but declined visiting a building full of weaker than usual humans with no one else to help hold him back. Once the passing loneliness faded I opened the diary to somewhere around the middle. Cynthia - the phantom girl another me once loved - had been nine for a few months by then. I noticed a doodle in the margins of the notebook and smiled at the cirlyque design, the squiggle was something familiar, I remembered that it had been present often if my sister had been there.

_Dear Diary,  
__I feel silly writing that, but I'd feel even sillier giving a stupid diary a name. YES ALICE I CALLED THE DIARY YOU GAVE ME " STUPID". AND STOP READING OVER MY SHOULDER IT'S ANNOYING! Okay, maybe I should start over._

_Today has been a very weird day, well it's been fun, but weird too. I have no idea what's going on sometimes. I raced Micheal to the big tree and got scolded by Mama because I wasn't acting lady-like enough. I must remember to keep my elbows and knees covered whenever I am in public or with a boy, soon I wont even be allowed to play with boys. That's a shame cuz I like them better than the girls...well except Alice she can climb trees and race with the best of them. _

_Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, today was weird because when I came home (I didn't get any dirt on my dress and Daddy couldn't even tell that I had been outside) I heard my parents whispering. This was weird because they were in the private parlour and Mary was already upstairs, today wasn't even Charlotte's day to clean that part of the house. I pressed my ear against the door even though I knew it was unladylike to snoop. All I heard were fragments anyway. They were talking about me and Alice, I mean Mary and I, but I heard the words "bad influence" and "neighbors" and "scandalous" from Daddy. Mama flat out refused to do something she said that "under no conditions" was she going to send one of her "babies" away._

_For a minute I was scared, I thought maybe they were talking about how Mary and Susan are going away to school soon and Daddy wanted me to start, too. But it didn't make sense, Mary would have to go first. But then I heard footsteps on the stairs and jumped away from the door trying not to look guilty. It was only Mary, she was looking for me._

_And later today, at dinner, Mary's eyes rolled up into her head and her arms started twitching, usually she only got a blank look on her face when the visions came and I was really worried. I tried to act normal while inside I was waiting for something terrible to happen. I was relieved when Mary sat up and continued eating as if nothing had happened, when Mama and Daddy turned away I gave her my what-did-you-see look. She just gave me her I'll-tell-you-later look and so we both pretended nothing happened._

_When we went upstairs Alice grabbed my hand and said "Promise you won't ever leave me." It reminded me of the argument I had heard this afternoon so I told her all about it. But she told me it wasn't going to happen. And that's really it, I should go to bed now I guess, but I don't really want to. _

_Cynthia Anne Brandon_

After reading the passage I quickly scanned the rest of the diary. Like the first few entries the rest was filled with lively, intelligent chatter, forshadowing, and the obvious affection Cynthia had for her sister. I idly wondered if I called her Cynthia or Cynthia Anne, or maybe just Anne. I noticed that she only wrote my name as Mary every now and then, the rest of the time I was Alice. Maybe we called each othe rby our middle names most of the time and first names were a formality, it seemed like something the phantom girls would do.

I found it hard to imagine the lively, affectionate, and - for the most part - happy girl so vibrantly enshrined on those pages as me. I'm that way now but I always assumed I was more of a shadowed and quiet girl. Maybe I was and only Anne saw the true me.

I smiled to myself, calling her Anne, even if only in my mind, sounded mor right than calling her Cynthia ever had.

Without warning I was transported through time and space. I was looking at a familiar room from an eye level much higher than my own. There was an ancient computer, a rocking chair, yellowed lace curtains, a bed, and most importantly a girl huddled, crying silently in a corner. I was looking at Bella through Charlie's eyes I was certain. The point of view was strongly masculine and protective, I felt the heartbreak as clearly as if my own was breaking, maybe it was.

When I returned to The Now as I sometimes called it, Jasper was in the room, he knelt on the floor beside the bed and held my wriists lightly. His eyes asked the question before his lips did (much like Anne i realized wryly). I only shook my head sadly.

"Bella's heart has been shattered beyond repair and I had to see it through Charlie's eyes" I tols him finally. I still felt the remnants of both griefs, and my own at seeing my "sister" so hurt, and I needed a hug more than anything else in the whole world.

Without moving from my position I wrapped my arms around as much of my vampire as I could and pressed my face into his chest. Jasper hugged back fiercly before tilting my face up to meet my lips with a kiss. Things progressed from there but I will spare you the details and say only that Mary would have never engaged in such actions.

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A few hours later I sat with Japser on the floor with both diaries open. I flipped a page and briefly glanced at it before turning another, but one phrase jumped out at me, "_Oh, Alice is going to live forever alright, but not because she's evil, no. My Mary Alice is going to live forever because she's pure good"_

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**Okay so that's chapter 2 (finally) enjoy it**

**Sami**


	4. Mini Chapter

Wow, two chapters in the same week, who would have thought I was capable of such?

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**Mini Chapter**

I stayed in with Jasper the next morning instead of heading down to the nursing home, I wasn't ready to see Laura so soon and I could tell Jasper needed to hunt. It was a cloudy day but warm, so I knew we could get away with wearing shorts today. I pulled on a pair of soft, brown courdory shorts, they fit my small form and exposed just enough leg for me to seem taller. The tank top i chose was a pale beige with flowery embroidery at the collar. Jasper was wearing longer jean shorts and a short sleeved polo shirt. With sudden inspiration I smiled widely.

"Race you" I whispered before zooming through the countryside. I somehow knew exactly where I was going even though I had never been this way before. At various points as we ran I saw Jasper pass me before I caught up to and passed him again.

I stopped midstride and stared at the tree in front of me. It was huge, GINORMOUS, my entire family could have stood around the tree holding hands, Bella included, and just barely encircled the tree. I sowly walked around it and felt Jasper quietly following me. I was strangely calm, too shocked to have room for anymore emotion as a large house loomed into view on the other side of tree.

With purposefull strides I walked into the building, ignoring the dust and creak of old wood as I made my way upstairs. I looked around in awe at the pictures, photographs and paintings littering the upstairs hallway. I saw myself at various stagesof life, often accompanied by a younger girl, and sometimes by an older couple. The woman was in fact beautiful, she had long dark brown curls, and pale green eyes, she held herself llike she knew she was stunningly marvelous, beside her stood a tall man with jet black hair and vibrant blue eyes, he had a stern set about his mouth and chin but a friendly sparkle in his eyes. I knew immediatly that they were my parents and regardless of how they felt about me they were good people.

I studied another portrait further down the hall. The two children in this were about seven and five years old. I saw myself as a smiling child sitting on a low cushion cradling a doll while my sister sat on the floor beside me, her attention held by a large red ball, there was even a sleepy puppy in the photograph.

To escape all the portraits I openned the door on the right and was hit by a sudden burst of calm curtesy of Jasper. I smiled at him before walking into a room dominated by two canopy beds. One bed had a pink spread with the name Cynthia stitched across the bottom, the othe was covered by a matching blue bedspread needled with the word Mary. On the one hand I was proud of myselffor remembering my old house and room, on the other I really wanted to get out of there.

I was assaulted repeated by images of tea parties, petty arguments, secret conferences, and the ranting of a very headstrong little girl who was being brave for her older sister. I turned and ran blindly, past the tree, through the countryside, past the swanky hotel, beyond the state lines, to the middle of nowhere where I collapsed in a heap.

I have no idea how long I stayed that way, all I know is it got dark, it got bright, it got dark, and it got bright again. I had lost track of time completely when Jasper found me, I looked up and saw concern, compassion, and worry as wells as relief written all over his face. I felt foolish for embarking on this erand in the first place.

"How long?" I croaked, the thirst that had been quietly gnawing on me turned to a full fledged need as i breathed for the first time since leaving my old house.

"Almost a week." he answered as calm and relief flooded my body. I tried to smile but couldn't quite manage it. Instead I tackled a nearby deer and resolved to pretend the last week never happened.

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**I'm not done yet! This isn't goodbye. But I am getting close. In case anyone was wondering, "Quiet Mind" by Blue October has been _Sister of Mine_'s unofficial theme song. Another chapter will be up shortly, this is just a random chapterlet to tide you over until then.**


	5. Epilogue

**a/n: It's been a very long time since I updated. I'm sorry. I've lost the story and so must end it properly now**

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**Epilogue**:

When I had finally recovered from the nostalgia-induced comma Jasper found me in another week had passed and I really needed to see Laura. I pulled on a plain grey hoodie over nondescript slightly frayed jeans and shoved the diaries into my bag. I had read a passage that morning while I waited for the appropriate hour ot go to the nursing home.

_Dear Diary,  
Still haven't thought of an acceptable name for you, but Alice has been acting strange lately. She has begun to have terrible nightmares abut burning and things being on fire. I know these nightmares are like her visions only worse. I remember the fire she predicted so long ago and shudder a bit. In school we studdied the witch hunts of old and her continual cries of "Fire, it burns!" scare me more than they do her. I know she thinks I'm being silly but I keep imagining her being burned at the stake. Whatever Daddy thinks of her Mama and I would never let anything happen to Alice if we could prevent it. I dont think Daddy is going to do anything that drastic but he did say that next week when Alice turns fifteen we were all going to get a special treat. I didn't like the look on his face when he said that but what can I do?_

_Cynthia Anne Brandon_

I felt a little sad upon reading that. My sweet good-natured sister. The phantom girl I longed to know but also wished I could forget. The last connection to her I had were a dying woman and some fading ink. Well, I had come to Biloxi looking for my history and had found it, but was I satisfied? Shaking the meloncholy thoughts from my head I walked to the nursing home and asked for Laura.

The old woman was in the sun room looking out the window. I smiled and thanked her for her time and promised to mention her in my presentation. As I returned to the hotel I was struck by another vision, _Bella her hair lank and her face hollow stood on the edge of a cliff and smiled, she glanced over her shoulder before propelling herself off the precipice in a graceful swan dive with a shout of joy. She entered the water with hardly a splash and struggled for a moment before she disappeared, I watched the water for four long minutes but she never rose_. I knew that was the longest a human could survive under water without special training. When she never surfaced I ran to the hotel and phoned the family in Denali from the room. Without giving Jasper much information i loaded up the car and headed to Forks, Washington to comfort Charlie Swan in his hour of dire need. When we were halfway across the nation I was trapped by another vision.

_Laura studying the picture from the diary for the first time let out a shocked gasp as she recognized the older girl in a teenager she met with recently. Remembering how she never believed Mary Alice to be dead Laura was struck with a new possibility, one her church would never condone. A combination of heat and shock were too much for her poor heart and she collapse there a look of surprise on her face, a diary in her lap, and a photograph in her hand._

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**okay, it's over. sorry I ended it so babdly but I couldn't leave it open like that and didn't know what else to do.**


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